Cor Centrum
by luvsbitca
Summary: Stiles wants answers about his position in the pack so he goes to Deaton hoping for something understandable under all of the cryptic answers. He never expected that he was the sand. Part of Growling 'Verse – Post Five Times Chapter 6 – Joshua


**Title –** Cor Centrum  
**Author -** Moonbeam  
**Rating –** Teen  
**Series – **Growling 'Verse – Post Five Times Chapter 6 – Joshua  
**Summary –** Derek goes to a tea party with his daughter. Part of Growling 'Verse – Post Five Times Chapter 6 – Joshua  
**Disclaimer –** If I owned this show there would be more of it, lots lots more of it.  
**Author's Notes –** I am this || close to finishing Joshua (just the sex scene to write) because my muse finally came back and in the process of writing it I finally had to answer the question of what Stiles is to the pack. So, here it is. I promise that Joshua is a hair's breadth away. Then if I finish Pack Threats there will be no more loose ends.

**Cor Centrum**  
by Moonbeam

"Mr Stilinski," Deaton said, stepping up to the counter. "How can I help you?"

"I was hoping I could ask you some questions."

"Certainly, Mr Stilinski, I will be closing in a few minutes and then we can talk."

"Thanks, Deaton."

The vet smiled at him and went back to his work room. Ten minutes later, Deaton locked the front door and flipped the sign then he turned and looked at Stiles.

"What would you like to discuss?"

"As you may know, I'm dating Derek and I've started to realise that there is something different about my position in the pack and I was wondering if you could tell me what Derek is refusing to tell me."

Deaton looked down at him and folded his arms across his chest. "You have access to a great many tomes about werewolves."

"I know."

"And you haven't found any references that would tell you what position you hold within the pack."

"I wasn't looking for anything like that when I was reading. I was hoping you could help me."

"You could go back to the books to find your answer."

Stiles nodded. "I could, but you know things that aren't in any of those books."

"Have you come across references to a Cor Centrum in your readings?"

Stiles sat back and though back to his readings. "In one of the old Celtic texts but I can't actually read Latin yet."

"Yet?"

"I'm taking a class at university but they are slow so I'm supplementing it but it's not like there are teach yourself Latin tapes."

"I can assist you with learning Latin, Mr Stilinski."

"Thank you." Stiles would not be deterred though. "Can you tell me about a Cor Centrum?"

"They do not exist in many packs. Once, a long time ago, they were protectors and were believed to be the most important member of a pack. Alphas can be replaced, when one dies another takes their place. If a Cor Centrum dies then their pack is weaker."

"What are they?"

"Not what," Deaton said, walking away from Stiles and out the back. He returned a few minutes later with a jar of rust coloured dirt and stopped behind the counter. "Who…the question, Mr Stilinski, is who is a Cor Centrum."

"Okay, who is a Cor Centrum?"

"You are."

Stiles bit down on his desire to groan. He'd known that coming and asking Deaton would mean having to deal with the man's cryptic way of telling someone information. He wanted to know and he needed to keep that in mind instead of getting frustrated until he knew everything he could.

"Derek is sensible to hide you."

"Why?"

Deaton opened the jar and waved Stiles over. He lifted the jar to his lips and whispered something over the dirt. Then he pulled a handful out and dropped it onto the counter. "In the pack there is an alpha." Deaton rubbed a circle in the middle of the sand until Stiles could see the counter through the grains. "An alpha can change. If Derek were to die another wolf in his pack would become alpha. Like Peter it could be the person who kills him or like Laura it could be his second-in-command which is always murky when it is a built pack instead of family ties. Then there are his betas." Deaton used his thumb to create four divots in the sand. "Scott, Jackson, Lydia, Danny."

"What about Allison and I?"

"Allison might be protected by Derek because she has chosen to be in the pack but she is like your father and Melissa. She is not truly pack even though she is called pack."

"And me?"

"You are the sand."

Stiles looked down at the sand drawing that Deaton had created. "I don't understand."

"You are the centre and the circumference. The ties that bind the pack together. Your pack has no family ties. Each wolf has sworn their allegiance to an alpha and only one of them was turned by that alpha. In any of your readings have you read of a pack like yours?"

Stiles shook his head. "Most packs are familial packs or ones with alphas who turn betas and then use those ties to hold the pack together."

"How do you explain the fact that Derek's pack is so strange?"

Stiles shrugged. "We've had to deal with all sorts of bad guys holding us together."

Deaton smiled and grabbed Stiles' hand pressing his palm into the sand. When he let go Stiles' hand print was over the each of the holes that Deaton had made.

"This," Deaton said, pointing at the sand. "This is what you are to the pack. They come to you for help?"

"Yeah."

"They seek out your advice."

"Yeah."

"They would present possible mates to you for approval, they seek out your approval in their lives."

"I don't understand."

"In most packs the alpha has a mate and they help build the pack through the creation of more familial bonds."

"I can't do that."

"Yes, you can. You already have – you brought Lydia and Scott into the pack. You helped Derek become the alpha he is – you are the heart, the centre, the sand that surrounds and connects the bonds of pack. When the position of Cor Centrum was more common – in a time when tribes were pack, before human development separated people out of tribes and into houses. Cor Centrum was the most closely protected member of a tribe or pack."

"So, I'm as important as Derek."

"Some would argue more important."

"And what do you think?"

"I think that you and Derek are both necessary to the fact your pack flourishes and is able to be apart without breaking."

Stiles dropped his head down onto his palm. "I just figured I was like the pack mother or something."

"Ah, yes, I do believe that mother may be the wrong term. Alpha's mate is much more accurate and you are that too."

"Too?"

"Cor Centrum and Alpha's Mate are not roles that have always been held by the same person."

"So, I'm both."

"You are."

Stiles let out a huff of breath and watched as the sand ruffled but did not move. "I need to think about this."

"And you need to learn Latin."

Stiles laughed. "That too. Thank you for your help."

"I live to demystify the world of werewolves for your pack. I would offer you one last piece of advice, Mr Stilinski."

"What?" Stiles took out his phone and took a photo of the sand.

"Take Derek's desire to keep your position in the pack a secret."

"Why?"

"What happens when the sand disappears?" Deaton asked.

Stiles frowned down at the sand and shrugged. "I don't know."

Deaton leaned down and blew causing the sand to disperse over the counter. "Without you the pack would scatter."

"Nonsense, if I left Derek would still be their alpha."

"Yes, for a time."

"I mean the Cor Centrum is just a human, right?" Deaton nodded. "Then they would have died in those tribes too."

"And those tribes would soon fall to in fighting and war with their neighbours who would use the loss of their Cor Centrum as a chance to expand their strength."

"And we don't live in tribes anymore. They'd be fine."

Deaton started sweeping the sand back into the jar. "We do not live in tribes but werewolves still live in packs and you are as important to your pack as Derek. Keep your position a secret, let them believe you are nothing but the Alpha's Mate and continue to protect your pack. This is my suggestion to you, Mr Stilinski."

Deaton put the jar of sand on the counter and looked at Stiles.

"Something to think about then."

Stiles nodded and thanked Deaton again before he left to go home. Half way there he turned around and drove to Derek's house instead.

The werewolf smiled when Stiles let himself in through the kitchen door and then frowned at him. "What's wrong?"

"I was talking to Deaton."

"About what?"

"About my place in the pack."

Derek frowned. "Stiles, we've only been dating for a month. I don't think we should get into that yet."

"Why?"

Derek shrugged. "I don't want you to feel pressured."

"Pressured by what?"

"By how I feel about you."

Stiles smiled. "You're very good at not answering questions."

"And you're very good at pushing."

"Is this about us being half-mated already?"

Derek looked down at the floor and shrugged.

"Because that doesn't bother me."

"How can it not bother you?" Derek asked. "Werewolves are possessive."

"I know."

"And we're-"

"Derek," Stiles interrupted, fitting his body into Derek's so that he could wrap his arms around the older man. "I know everything about werewolves."

"You've never dated one."

"I was there for every moment of Scott and Allison's epic love. I've read every book I have been able to translate or get my hands on."

"And you don't know _everything_ about werewolves."

"What don't I know?"

"That I'm going to be irrationally jealous sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

Derek growled. "And divorce isn't really a thing."

"You love me too much to hold onto me if I was miserable."

"You don't know me at all if you think that."

Stiles shook his head and lifted up onto his toes to kiss Derek. "Okay, I'll wait if you like and you can tell me when you're ready how important I am to you and the pack." Stiles wondered if Derek even knew about Cor Centrums. He wondered if that was even what he could be. He trusted Deaton though and if what the vet had said at the end was true Stiles would hide what he knew and just be Derek's mate – as soon as Derek was willing to admit it.

Derek rolled his eyes and kissed Stiles again. "Thank you."

"But don't think you're the only possessive one in this relationship. Or the only one who gets jealous. You and I aren't that different."

"I'm okay with that."

"And you think I won't be?" Stiles shook his head and kissed Derek. "Never mind. What are you up to today?"

"Nothing much, I was going into town to get the food for tonight's pack meeting."

"Want company?"

"Of course."

Stiles pulled away and looked at Derek. "Am I being too clingy? Because I know I come across strongly, like I've already worked out how I'm hyphenating my name strong."

Derek frowned. "I don't understand what you mean when you say hyphenate your name but no, you're not coming on too strong. I'm a werewolf – I wouldn't complain if you moved in here tomorrow."

Stiles looked around. "I could move in today."

"Maybe we should see how living together in Berkeley goes first."

"Why? We've been living together all year."

"Not in the same room."

Stiles shrugged. "Like I've spent so many nights at home since you lifted the no sleeping together ban."

"You weren't here last night."

Stiles froze. "I knew you didn't want me to sleep at home. You got the pouty tone in your voice but I didn't want to overdo it."

"Overdo what?"

"Me," Stiles said, throwing his hands up in the air. "I'm intense, I'm too much for most people. I have ADHD and while some people calm down as they reach adulthood I haven't become any less focussed or unfocussed. I'm not easy to deal with or get along with and I really, really don't want you to get sick of me."

"Why would I get sick of you, Stiles? How could I? I've lived with you for a year and you've been in the pack for years before that."

Stiles rolled his shoulders. "Yeah."

Derek ducked down and looked Stiles in the eye. "You've been worried about this before now?"

Stiles shrugged.

Derek sighed and tugged Stiles into a hug. "Move in then, today, and I'll show you that you're just right."

Stiles smiled into the material of Derek's shirt and held him tightly.

**The End**


End file.
